City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Hardback, 2011, 424 pages. Library copy.

I've read some reviews on Goodreads, and it seems like people either love this book or loathe it. I'm somewhere in between, but I learn toward loving it. I read the first three so quickly. Her writing does that to me - I cannot put the darn book down, I find myself reading ahead and have to force myself to stick to the current line I'm on.

After I picked this book up from the library, though, I had to read a summary on the first three because I honestly could remember very little of what happened. Valentine wanted to kill Downworlders, Simon became a vampire who could walk in daylight, Jace and Clary thought they were siblings or fa while, they took Valentine out in the end. . .did anything else happen? Yes, apparently, quite a lot, and I actually had to call my 13 year old sister to ask her, 'Wait, who are Jace's parents again??'

Anyways, as predicted, I read this book in a few sittings. Just like when I was fourteen and I was so friggin excited when she'd update Draco Veritas and I'd soak up those words as quickly as I could (though I later learned the words weren't all hers lol), I couldn't put this book down. Well, I did a few times because I had to sleep or go to an appointment, but you get the idea.

The book picks up six weeks after City of Glass. Clary's mom and Luke are getting married. Simon is trying to adjust to vampire life, being made offers and also being attacked by strange men. Clary and Jace are training and kind of happy, but not really. Strange things are happening, though - someone is killing Shadowhunters, and someone else is messing with human babies. The crew does their individual research, and they find out that it's all connected by a darker evil than they could have imagined. Yeah, I never said I was really good at writing blurbs, okay?

Is it perfect? No. Are Clary and Jace melodramatic? Yes. Does some of the dialogue make me cringe? Yes. Regardless, I thought there were some very intriguing ideas here, and I liked how the plot played out. Plus Simon makes this book very awesome. I love seeing more of him, and even though he was getting a little whiny towards, I think he's finally getting it together by the end. I think at times Clare tries to chase after too many subplots (do I care about Alec and Magnus? No, actually, I don't. And I care about Maia and Jordan only a little bit more). I think if she went deeper into just a few characters, it'd be better.

Some people thought the plot moved slowly and had too much dialogue, but I thought it was a reasonable pace. Not everything can go a million miles a minute, and I thought it was a lot more like "real life" even with the demon babies and pillars of salt and everything.

I'll be watching for the next installment, and Clockwork Prince (and I liked her little nod to that world!). Who knows? I might even go read the first three again. It'll probably be like reading them for the first time since it went straight through me last time.

Sidenote: I don't really like this cover. Clary's eyes look weird. And is that supposed to be Simon? What's with the arrows??

Second sidenote I forgot to add: I like Clary. She doesn't wait around for people to save her, but she's also not invincible. Yes, she mopes over Jace, but it doesn't inhibit her from everything. She was probably more preoccupied with Jace in this book than others (although I could be wrong considering I hardly remember the others). I still like her.